Veterans' Day was just a few days ago, and I wanted to write something for this, but couldn't come up with anything meaningful. Then Lillie's serendipitous prompt provided the way. It's not exactly fiction; it is based upon the events of my father's life.

Man of Letters

He never quite completed his education in the normal way; indeed, he was graduated early from high school so that he could begin basic training. It was his first time away from the small mountain town where he was born, the Army sending him first to Georgia and then to California, and once deemed ready to fight, directly into the Ardennes offensive—what most would come to know as the Battle of the Bulge. There was little chance for direct communications with those back home, but there was the mail, irregular and unreliable as it was from the battlefields of Europe. As the dark shroud of war covered the world, those brief notes were the only tangible evidence he still existed to friends and family. Despite his poor spelling, and having never attended a single day of college, he became a man of letters.

I thought you might like this one! And I thought about your new title coming out when I wrote it.

( For those who do not know, Bethanne has a new book coming out 11/25/2013, titled "Letters From Home." It's available for pre-order from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Entangled-Flirts-Bethanne-Strasser-ebook/dp/B00GETKXAI )

Hi K.R.It appears as if we both decided to have our endeavors this week to involve our veterans. I believe this is probably due to us just having celebrated Veteran's Day this past Monday.While you chose to deal with World War II, I went with a more recent conflict. While you chose to have the letters to signify live, I went into the other direction where these letters have become a vivid personal remembrance of happier times.

I can't begin to imagine being at home not hearing from a loved one for days, weeks or months and each time the postman comes, your heart skips a beat waiting for news. And I can't imagine how a soldier must have felt to get a letter from their loved one whilst they are seeing nothing but death all around them on a daily basis. Those letters meant so much to all involved at the time. Poor spelling, little education but his heart was in the right place. A real man of letters.

It must have been quite different back then. Today's soldiers have satellite phones and the Internet, though still not the same as being at home, they can actually talk and see their families. But the letters can last for years afterward, and there is something special about that.